Jesselyn Radack is a lawyer who worked for the Department of Justice Professional Responsibility Advisory Office. For insisting that the government obey the law when prosecuting Americans accused of terrorism crimes, she was fired and persecuted to the fullest abilities of the federal government. She is uniquely qualified to draw attention to the Obama administration’s scorched-earth war on whistleblowers.
The law-breaking telecoms who received retroactive immunity from Congress, the interrogators who tortured prisoners, the officials who gave the orders, the attorneys who authored the torture memos, and the CIA agents who destroyed the interrogation tapes have not been held professionally accountable, much less been charged with crimes. National security and intelligence whistleblowers have become the glaring exception to the Obama administration’s mantra of “looking forward, not backward.” If you committed crimes under the guise of national security and the war on terrorism, you will not be held criminally liable, but if you blow the whistle on crimes, you risk criminal prosecution under the Espionage Act.